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23 June 2014

Welsh Horse 1914-1916

The Welsh Horse was a new formation raised in 1914 and whilst it had no lineage to trace, it was at least unencumbered by earlier regimental numbering sequences. It started numbering, logically, from 1 in August 1914. By 19th August 1914, 120 men had already joined the regiment, and many more would follow that month and into September.

435 joined on 10th September 1914
478 joined on 10th November 1914
677 joined on 4th January 1915
953 joined on 7th February 1915
1233 joined on 20th May 1915
1284 joined on 1st June 1915
1388 joined on 13th July 1915
1447 joined on 1st November 1915
1569 joined on 15th December 1915
1724 joined on 31st March 1916
1757 joined on 14th April 1916
1772 joined on 1st May 1916

The regiment was initially attached to the North Midland Mounted Brigade of the 1st Mounted Division, later transferring to the Eastern Mounted Brigade in the same Division. Two reserve units, the 2/1st (formed in September 1914) and the 3/1st (formed in 1915) both drew their numbers from the same series above.

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2 comments:

Hi, my dad researched one of my relatives a couple of years back. He’d served in WW1, Robert Read service number 355546 died 31/10/1917 buried in Beersheba cemetery. My parents visited the grave in 2014, I’ve just been trawling through photos on my mums iPad and came across the photos they took whilst there. Being a little more computer savvy I’ve just spent the afternoon doing a little more digging in to Roberts movements. It appears that he initially signed up to the welsh horse with a regt no. 78. And was a Pte acting Lce/Cpl. With his initial theatre being 2B Balkans. Date first in 8/10/1915. Can I make the assumption that he first signed up for duty with welsh horse? Then when moved from Gallipoli was merged into the Royal Welch Fusiliers and given a new service number in Egypt? I’ve got a lot of details but am struggling to map them out. I know that he received DCM in London gazette 18 feb 1918. Was this given posthumously?Thanks in advance for even the slightest info Steff

His medal card will give you that information, Steff. This man does have some surviving papers: https://britisharmyancestors.co.uk/search-result/?q=355546+read. Also have a look at The Long, Long Trail website and the Great War Forum.

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WW1 Medal Index Cards 1914-1920First World War campaign medal entitlement details for close to 5 million men. You'll find ALL of a man's regimental numbers indexed here. Ancestry's search is limited to the last number a man was issued with; a serious failing.

The Royal Dublin Fusiliers was born on 1st July 1881. The 1st Battalion was created out of the old 102nd Regiment of Foot (Royal Madras Fus...

Regimental Numbers

When did my relative enlist? When did my grandfather join up? On what date did he join his regiment?

A man's regimental number can tell you a lot about when he joined and even which battalion he joined. Note however, that there is a distinction between "enlisted" and "joined".

A man would generally enlist once - and be given a regimental number - or army number - on joining his regiment. If he joined another regiment he would be given a different number.

He could even be given a different number if he joined another battalion of the same regiment. In all probability this number would not be unique and could be repeated in many battalions and regiments throughout the British Army.

This blog aims to guide the researcher through the maze of regimental numbers issued by the British Army between 1881 and 1918.

The Army Service Numbers Database

The Army Service Numbers database is a database of British Army regimental numbers. This has been compiled from original sources, principally WO 363, WO 364, WO 96, WO 97 and WO 372 at the National Archives in London.

The database covers most units of the British Army which issued regimental numbers between the years 1881 and 1918: Infantry Regiments, Cavalry and Yeomanry, Royal Artillery and Royal Army Medical Corps.

What you will find on this blog is data from a far larger data set - generally one number per year up until 1914 and then one number per month from August 1914 onwards.

As general rules:

1. Army Service Numbers for regular battalions are uncomplicated and largely sequential up until 1914.

2. Numbering in the British Army becomes more complicated from December 1915.